Stormlight vs. Mists

[Trusk'our he/him]

Both stormlight and the mists of Scadrial are gaseous forms of investiture. How come radiants can absorb stormlight, but mistings and mistborn cant absorb the mists under normal circumstances?

[Frustration he/him]

Probably because Spren have more connection to Honor than Allomancers do to Preservation.

[NameIess he/him]

Because the stormlight in the storms is more available, and the Radiants are fueled directly by it, as opposed to the Mistborn, who are fueled by burning metals to gain keyed investiture.

[cometaryorbit]

Yeah, probably - Allomancers aren't bonded to Splinters of Preservation.

Stormlight might be just easier to absorb, too.The natural ecosystem of Roshar uses Stormlight (via gemhearts - and maybe Rosharan plants benefit from it?) Humans can't absorb Stormlight without some sort of bond, either a direct Nahel bond or indirectly as Squires or through use of a Honorblade ... but then, humans aren't Rosharan natives.

Of course, Vasher/Zahel isn't a Rosharan native, and he can absorb Stormlight and use it to live, though he can't use it to Awaken or Surgebind - and he doesn't seem to have any Rosharan bond to let him do that. But maybe being a Returned gives him an extra-broken soul, or maybe he found a way to fix his Connection?

 

[+Bzhydack he/him]

1 hour ago, cometaryorbit said:

But maybe being a Returned gives him an extra-broken soul, or maybe he found a way to fix his Connection?

Probably being Returned gives him just general Investiture affinity.

[apepi]

I don't think that it was intended by Honor, not at first. I remember heralds drew their power straight from Honor, so they didn't need to use stormlight like they do now. And spren bonding people was more a surprise to Honor, so maybe either the storm was used for a different purpose than it is used now but were able to use it as a power source anyways because they were using the spren who had connection to Honor to give to the radiant or Honor changed it to help the radiants.

Remember the Urithiru? At the top, there was a place to allow stormlight to come in and 'charge' the tower, same with lifelight with the well(?). Honor intended people to use the investiture this way. Meanwhile Preservation did not(except very limited people who were given(?) that ability like Vin.), a shard has some power over how their power works, like Honor(and Cult?) kind of limited how surgebinding worked, because it was found it could chaos quite destruction. Maybe charging Urithu/ other cities was the main reason for the storm. We do know that Honor did change the stormfather right before he died.

I think if Preservation wanted everyone to draw from the mist, he could allow them, but chooses not to. We have seen him allowing it to people(well, a person), but doesn't want everyone to be able to. Originally the Mist was used to snap people. Now, if someone was smart, they probably could do it without their help, but that is something else.

[Frustration he/him]

2 hours ago, apepi said:

I don't think that it was intended by Honor, not at first. I remember heralds drew their power straight from Honor, so they didn't need to use stormlight like they do now. And spren bonding people was more a surprise to Honor, so maybe either the storm was used for a different purpose than it is used now but were able to use it as a power source anyways because they were using the spren who had connection to Honor to give to the radiant or Honor changed it to help the radiants.

I think that radiants could use Stormlight from the start, we know Shards don't have total control over their magic.

2 hours ago, apepi said:

Remember the Urithiru? At the top, there was a place to allow stormlight to come in and 'charge' the tower, same with lifelight with the well(?). Honor intended people to use the investiture this way. Meanwhile Preservation did not(except very limited people who were given(?) that ability like Vin.), a shard has some power over how their power works, like Honor(and Cult?) kind of limited how surgebinding worked, because it was found it could chaos quite destruction. Maybe charging Urithu/ other cities was the main reason for the storm. We do know that Honor did change the stormfather right before he died.

The Sibling made their own light.

2 hours ago, apepi said:

I think if Preservation wanted everyone to draw from the mist, he could allow them, but chooses not to. We have seen him allowing it to people(well, a person), but doesn't want everyone to be able to. Originally the Mist was used to snap people. Now, if someone was smart, they probably could do it without their help, but that is something else.

That is possible.

[apepi]

15 hours ago, Frustration said:

I think that radiants could use Stormlight from the start, we know Shards don't have total control over their magic.

The Sibling made their own light.

That is possible.

Them what is the point of the conduits at the tower then? Doesn't make sense to me.

[Frustration he/him]

8 hours ago, apepi said:

Them what is the point of the conduits at the tower then? Doesn't make sense to me.

The Nodes?

[apepi]

17 hours ago, Frustration said:

The Nodes?

Yeah those, I never remember names that well myself.

[Frustration he/him]

4 hours ago, apepi said:

Yeah those, I never remember names that well myself.

Those are used to gather Stormlight, wto power the sheild, something the Sibling cannot make itself.

That's why even when all of them are broken, once Navani forms the bond it can make towerlight again.

[Honorless he/him]

On 12/25/2021 at 5:40 AM, cometaryorbit said:

The natural ecosystem of Roshar uses Stormlight (via gemhearts - and maybe Rosharan plants benefit from it?)

Yup, it's mentioned that that's what the Listeners used to grow their food during the War of Reckoning on the Shattered Plains. In RoW, this method is tried on Urithiru. It's mentioned by Raboniel that Lifelight works even better than Stormlight for plants.

 

Allomancers have a direct conduit to Preservation, so they don't need to use the Mists for fuel. Technically, the Mists can be used as fuel, we see this with Vin, and Allomantic power overflowing looks like the Mists too, as seen with the Bands of Mourning, but, Allomancers and Feruchemists simply aren't built to draw it in under normal circumstances. They pull power from the Spiritual Realm.

For Radiants, the spren kinda take over the role of the metals as well as the sDNA, I suspect, and instead of pulling power from the Spiritual, they use Stormlight that's regularly distributed by the Highstorms.

It seems like having more Investiture or more of a Connection to Preservation, or Harmony, can allow them to draw in the Mists. The spren are more Connected to Honor and Cultivation, being their Splinters, so the Nahel Bond allows Surgebinders to draw in Stormlight. The spren themselves are also seen drawing energy from Stormlight, so it kinda makes sense for them to share that ability with their Radiants.

[LewsTherinTelescope]

I think this is probably in large part due to the fact that the storm is meant to put Investiture into things, while the mists are meant to stick around and perform a specific task Leras left for them. Singers taking forms, chasmfiends pupating, etc requires being out in a highstorm and taking in Stormlight into their gemheart. Or, the way Zahel describes it, the storms are "Invested to the hilt and looking for a place to stick it all". So when Stormlight is pulled through, it's Intended to be taken in and Invest things and be used, in a way that the mists are not, and you can take advantage of this in ways that weren't originally expected by Ado when they initially set the whole system up.

[cometaryorbit]

7 hours ago, Honorless said:

Yup, it's mentioned that that's what the Listeners used to grow their food during the War of Reckoning on the Shattered Plains. In RoW, this method is tried on Urithiru. It's mentioned by Raboniel that Lifelight works even better than Stormlight for plants.

Yes, I was not questioning whether Stormlight can help plants, just whether that happens 'naturally' since I think we always see it due to singer or human intervention. Plants are generally closed up during Highstorms. But I think it is a normal part of the Rosharan ecosystem.

6 hours ago, LewsTherinTelescope said:

I think this is probably in large part due to the fact that the storm is meant to put Investiture into things, while the mists are meant to stick around and perform a specific task Leras left for them.

Makes sense- Vin was chosen by (the remnant of) Leras-Preservation, and Sazed/Harmony suggests in the HoA epigraphs that the Well of Ascension further attuned her to take up the Mists. Leras-Preservation wouldn't have wanted the Mists to be used by just anyone.

[Honorless he/him]

8 hours ago, cometaryorbit said:

Yes, I was not questioning whether Stormlight can help plants, just whether that happens 'naturally' since I think we always see it due to singer or human intervention. Plants are generally closed up during Highstorms. But I think it is a normal part of the Rosharan ecosystem.

I think so too, but I'm mostly assuming because of the presence of Lifespren and the fact that we've seen some spren draw energy from Stormlight reflexively